The Syrian Coalition’s Supreme Hajj Committee said that the first batch of Syrian pilgrims would arrive in Saudi Arabia next week. The Committee has been supervising the services and procedures of hajj by Syrian pilgrims for the past five years.

The Committee’s media officer Abdel Rahman Nahlawi said that Syrian pilgrims would arrive in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia coming from several countries. Rights group estimate that over 13 million Syrians have been displaced inside and outside the country as a result of the Assad regime’s military campaigns on the liberated areas.

Nahlawi pointed out that the Supreme Hajj Committee has opened several offices in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and northern Syria as well as branch offices in the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait. The offices provide services to Syrian pilgrims and manage their affairs while performing hajj.

The first group of Syrian pilgrims will arrive in Saudi Arabia coming from Turkey on August 12, Nahlawi said. He pointed out that a total of 15,000 Syrian nationals will arrive in Saudi Arabia to perform hajj coming mainly from Syria and neighboring countries as well as Qatar, Egypt, the UAE, and Kuwait.

Nahlawi went on to say that all visas for hajj were exclusively obtained through the offices of the Committee in coordination with the Saudi embassies and consulates in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey under an agreement concluded with the Saudi Ministry of Hajj.